A Note From Mrs. Hernandez

As we push forward into the New Year, we are looking towards the end and what our learners need in order to be ready for Community Two. If you were to ask our sweet learners what they have to do in order to be ready, they would tell you that we need to be better readers, better writers, better mathematicians, and better scientists. In order to do this, we are going to hit the ground running and work hard on our standards making sure that each of us are moving in the direction of mastery. For those standards that we have mastered, we want to press on to bigger learning and challenge all learners to move to the next level.

Having said all of this, I would like to offer to each of you to schedule a mid-year conference if you would like to take a closer look into your learner's learning and assist me with planning to move them forward to the next level. My best times are after school on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursday starting at 3:30 p.m. or from 10:30 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. ever day. If none of these times, do not work for you, please let me know and we can certainly make arrangements. Lastly, if you just have a few questions and would rather communicate via telephone or email, I can make that work as well.

Regardless, it is a new year and as I told our learners earlier last week, time is crunching and we have a lot of work to do. So let's get busy! As always, thanks for your support and cooperation.

A Snapshot of Our Learning From Last Week

Shared Journals

Learners wrote about their goals for 2016!

Page 2-This learner has some BIG plans for the New Year!

Making Cool Sentences

This is a "Cool" activity that lead learners shared during our professional learning day that encourages learners to add more detail to their sentences to truly give their reader a clear picture from their writing. I think we did great for our first time. The learners seemed to really like it and what will take us to the next level is introducing more parts of speech such as prepositions, conjunctions, articles, etc. This is Big Learner's Stuff!

Shared Journals

Learners wrote about their goals for 2016!

Page 2-This learner has some BIG plans for the New Year!

Making Cool Sentences

This is a "Cool" activity that lead learners shared during our professional learning day that encourages learners to add more detail to their sentences to truly give their reader a clear picture from their writing. I think we did great for our first time. The learners seemed to really like it and what will take us to the next level is introducing more parts of speech such as prepositions, conjunctions, articles, etc. This is Big Learner's Stuff!

Comparing and Contrasting Stories by Jan Brett

More Creative Lab Creations

Comparing and Contrasting Stories by Jan Brett

Our learners learned about differentiating between similarities and differences between Jan Brett's "The Hat" and "The Mitten."

Comparing and Contrasting Stories by Jan Brett

Learners Becoming Authors in Writing Lab

Learners are writing narratives during writing lab.

Authors in the Making

A narrative about a wizard

Sharing our Work

Saylor shares her narrative with Mrs. Fureigh from Community Four.

Learners Becoming Authors in Writing Lab

Learners are writing narratives during writing lab.

Authors in the Making

A narrative about a wizard

Sharing our Work

Saylor shares her narrative with Mrs. Fureigh from Community Four.

Cooking in the Kitchen

Kameron is cooking up something in Home Living and it looks like he may be timing it. We began learning to tell time this week on an analog clock to the hour and half hour, and beyond for those who were ready!

Measuring at the Rice Table

Do these cups hold the same amount of Rice? Sariah says yes!

Measuring at the Rice Table

How Many Scoops Does it Take to Fill the Cup? Grace reported that it took 10 scoops.

Cooking in the Kitchen

Kameron is cooking up something in Home Living and it looks like he may be timing it. We began learning to tell time this week on an analog clock to the hour and half hour, and beyond for those who were ready!

Measuring at the Rice Table

Do these cups hold the same amount of Rice? Sariah says yes!

Measuring at the Rice Table

How Many Scoops Does it Take to Fill the Cup? Grace reported that it took 10 scoops.

Discovering the Wonders of the Ocean

We began Learning About the Different Zones of the Ocean

Learners discussed what they knew about the four zones and what they wanted to learn about the different zones.

What Zones Should We Learn About First?

Learners are submitting their votes to determine, where we will begin our discovery.

We began Learning About the Different Zones of the Ocean

Learners discussed what they knew about the four zones and what they wanted to learn about the different zones.

What Zones Should We Learn About First?

Learners are submitting their votes to determine, where we will begin our discovery.

Skills we are Currently Working On

Reading-Comparing and Contrasting Stories, using inferences for comprehension, using phonological awareness and phonics to increase fluency on or above grade-level texts.

Language-Printing all uppercase and lowercase letters, using common, proper, and possessive nouns, using pronouns, identifying and using verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in our speaking and writing, using correct punctuation at the ends of sentencing and using commas correctly.

Math-Telling Time (to the hour and half hour), Counting to 120, starting at any number, and Understanding Place Value and how it connects to adding and subtracting, finding 10 more or 10 less, one more and one less, continuing to add, subtract with 20 and multiplying within 100 for those learners who are ready

Science & Engineering-The Ocean (describing survival traits of living things, classifying plants and animals according to physical traits, identifying developmental stages of plants and animals, and describing habitats of animals,)

-We will also complete a STEM activity this week where learners will build a snowman with materials with no directions or guidance. (identifying basic properties of objects and describe effects of forces on objects regarding position)

Social Studies-Learning about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (identifying contributions of significant figures that have influenced our local community and identifying historical events and celebrations, comparing how people lived in the past versus how they live today